The Weinheimer is awarded the 9th Dan.
Weinheim. Rolf Wirth is indisputably one of the most successful German karate athletes: In Berlin, the 74-year-old chairman of the Judo and Karate Center (JKC) eV Weinheim successfully passed his 9th Dan exam.
The exam took place as part of the annual day of the Karate Kollegium Deutschlands (KKD). The President and Vice President of the KKD, Jürgen Hornung 9th Dan and Dr. Anton Dietl 8th Dan and sports director Marion Hornung (6th Dan).
The list of Weinheim karate legends is long: Rolf Wirth has been enthusiastic about karate since 1966 and was a member of the BWKV state squad after only three years. In 1972 he successfully passed his 1st Dan exam at BT Ochi and in 1973 he successfully passed the 2nd Dan exam with the same master of the 8th Dan in Weinheim. From 1975 to 1981 Wirth was a member of the German national karate team.
At the WUKO World Championships in Tokyo in 1977, he was a member of the then German national karate team, which won the vice world championship title in kumite. In singles he won sixth place at the World Championships. In 1978 the national team won bronze in the kata team at the European Championships. In 1980, at the European Championships in Brussels, he was only fourth in the singles. Rolf Wirth has had four German championship titles and three German runners-up titles, three-time winner of the International Shotokan Cup, nine-time state champion of Baden-Württemberg and various national titles. One of the highlights of his karate career was the exam with “Karate Pope” Prof. Dr. Nakayama (9th Dan) 1980. After several intensive training sessions, he personally suggested Rolf Wirth for the 3rd Dan exam.
Rolf Wirth was also active as a functionary: as the second chairman, as a sports manager or as a referee referee for the Karate Association of Baden-Württemberg. As an active referee with an A license, he worked in KVBW until 2013 and as a black belt examiner with an A license until 2016. From 1968 to 1976 he was chairman of the Karate Dojo Samurai. In June 1976 he founded the JKC Weinheim with many former members of the KD-Samurai, of which he is still the chairman today. In the club’s own dojo until 1991 on Handelstrasse and since 1992 on Freiburger Strasse, Wirth, along with four other highly qualified trainers, trains many karate groups – from four-year-olds to the over 70s “best agers”.
Wirth and the JKClers have also made a name for themselves as organizers of championships and tournaments. In 2004 they brought the junior state championship to Weinheim. From 1984 to 2015, the JKC organized the Karate Burgen Tournament, the largest and most renowned karate tournament in southern Germany.
For his lifetime achievement in karate, he has now been awarded the title “Hanshi” as “Karate Professor”. This means that the head trainer of the JKC, who holds the 9th Dan, is one of the highest-ranking karate trainers in Germany alongside Jürgen Hornung and four others. jk
